Unemployment: dole numbers drop in Deutschland

Unemployment in Germany has fallen by 125,000, the third month in a row the country has seen a drop in the number of those out of work.

The the current rate is running at 8 percent, down from 8.3 percent.

A government subsidy package known as “kurzarbeit” that urges companies to reduce workers hours instead of axing them helped in preventing mass layoffs while the economic downturn was at its sharpest.

Frank-Jürgen Weise is the Head of the Federal Employment Agency:
“ The reasons are many, but it all begins with the attitude of individuals who learn to live with less money while at the same time remaining in employment. Add to that the measures introduced to make the labour market more flexible.”

Although the figures have been helped by statistical changes the labour market appears to fairing better than in other countries.

Germany is now out of recession and into growth and it is expected to continue.

Copyright © 2009 euronews

tags: Germany, Unemployment